A Brave New World
by BooksMakeMagicForMe
Summary: Our world is in ruin. With the help of a member of their group, a team of teenagers and young adults manage to escape the turmoil and reach Middle-Earth, but what awaits them?
1. Chapter 1

The Council of Elrond was in full swing. Those who had been invited sat around the small table where the One Ring sat.

The three hiding Hobbits where listening to every word said.

In other words, everything was as it should have been, until...

"Tess! _TESS!_"

"Damn it Caine, she's been bitten! There's no saving her now!"

"What if she doesn't turn, Remy? What if she's got the right genes to survive? We can't just kill her without knowing, that would be murder!"

"Yes we can Caine! We have to! For the sake of our world and this one!"

A tattered and ragged group of teens stood next to the pedestal of the One Ring, arguing among themselves. They were all heavily armed, crudely made weapons hanging from belts and strange lumps of metal in hands.

The two speakers seemed to be the oldest of the group but it was impossible to put an age to their faces. They looked youthful, but their eyes held a pain that no-one in the Council could even begin to fathom.

Standing to the side of the oldest boy was a weak-looking girl, obviously Tess, the one who had been _"bitten"_.

By what exactly, nobody knew.

"Who are you? How have you gotten to my Council?" Elrond asked, his tone angry.

The mismatched group of teens fell silent, before one girl, previously called 'Remy' stepped forward.

She bowed low before Elrond- A man's bow- before straightening with a grim smile.

"If you don't mind, Lord Elrond, I have something to... _attend to_."

Elrond looked cold, but nodded sharply.

With that she turned, grabbed Tess and pulled her aside.

"Hold her." She demanded of two stronger-looking boys, both with long, dark hair and cold looks on their rugged faces.

"I do hope you don't mind getting blood stains on the floor, Lord Elrond, but it will be a lot worse if I don't do this and attempt to keep your home clean."

She pulled a large black thing from her belt. It looked completely harmless, but the girl's face seemed to darken as she pointed it at Tess.

"I'm sorry to have to do this, Tess. I really am, but you're a danger to all of us now."

The sick girl struggled weakly in the grasp of the two boys.

"Samuel, Mike. Keep her still. I don't want to have to do this more than once."

Elrond seemed to have accepted what was happening. He almost seemed to know already what was about to occur.

"_No!_" The boy called Caine yelled, and two other members of their group grabbed him and held him in place.

Tears were streaming down his face as he attempted to reach Tess, but he could not.

Finally, Remy raised the weapon, aimed it at Tess' head, and pulled the trigger.

"You see, Lord Elrond, our world... our world is in_ ruins_."

The body of the girl had been cleared away and the blood wiped up, along with various other... _debris_, for lack of a better word. The Council had been disbanded until the next day.

"Three years ago a disease called rabies mutated very suddenly and _very_ violently. It shocked everyone, most were caught by surprise. By the end of the first week of the spread of the disease... almost a third of the world's population were dead. Well, I say dead but really- a lot of them were _un-_dead."

Elrond opened his mouth to ask something. Mutters erupted in the great feast hall where the group were explaining their predicament.

"Now, you may ask how that is possible. The disease _should_ kill people. But when it mutated, it began to do something very different. The weak died from the disease- which we have named 'The Plague'- but those who were stronger became monsters.

"The Plague ate away at the very part of their brain that made them human (In our world, there _are_ no Elves, Dwarfs, nor Hobbits). The Plague made them lust for the flesh of the living and made them physically stronger than they ever should have been. The Plague created zombies.

"The girl you saw earlier- Tess- had been bitten while we were getting to a safe zone. If she had made it another ten steps, she wouldn't have been attacked... But that doesn't matter. What's done is done.

"As I said, it has been three years. Over that time, the disease has killed off an estimated 6.5 billion people. When the disease struck, there were 7 billion.

"That leaves our world with an estimated population of half a billion. Of course, we don't really know. We're just guessing but that number seems about right. Half a billion may be a lot to Middle-Earthians, but to us... That's just wrong."

"But how did you get here?" Gandalf questioned from his seat of honour.

Caine stepped forward. His face was devoid of all emotion.

"We got lucky. We have a girl in our group who can basically transport people into parallel universes. That'll probably freak you guys out, but we've been with her for a long time and we've used her power more than once, so we're used to it. Megan, c'mere!"

A small girl with mousy brown hair and almost translucent skin stumbled forward after a helpful nudge from a friend.

"I'm Megan. It's nice to meet you, Lord Elrond." She stuttered, and there were more mutters and whispers from the assembled Elves and Council attendees.

"Parallel universes?" Lord Elrond questioned.

The girl's face seemed to brighten considerably and the audience got the sensation that she quite enjoyed talking about her power.

"Yes My Lord. Different worlds, but at the moment there are very few that are actually... _habitable_."

"And why is that?"

"Since The Plague came about, other people like me have been trying to save themselves and their families, usually after someone got bitten by a zombie.

"I think Remy _may_ have forgotten to mention that tiny detail. The disease is spread by a zombie spit or blood getting into yours, but the most common way someone gets infected is through a bite.

"As I was saying, people with my power tried to save others by going to different worlds for help. Usually, this has just spread the disease into that world. It has the same effect on those worlds as it did on ours... complete termination.

"But you don't have to worry about us spreading the disease. Before we arrived we made sure all the zombie stuff was gone. I wasn't meant to bring Tess, it was an accident, but it's cleared up now so it should be okay!"

With that the girl stepped back into the group. Silence fell.

"If I understand correctly, your world is in turmoil. You may have gone to any world, any parallel universe with the help of Lady Megan. But you chose here... Or is the world you are landed in randomly chosen, perhaps?"

"That's a good question, Lord Elrond." Said Remy.

"The world we are transported to with the help of Megan is completely up to us. You see, all parallel universes, at least in our world, are contained in books. To most they are just stories. But then, you find someone like Megan, someone with the power to unlock those worlds and get into them. Your world- this one, I should say- is contained in a series of books called 'The Lord of the Rings'."

She turned to give a wink to the elves, men, dwarfs and hobbits behind her.

"Frodo Baggins, you would do well to remember that title. It might come in handy some day!"

"I beg your pardon Lord Elrond. Had to say it, it couldn't be avoided. I suppose we should all introduce ourselves... correct?"

Now, readers, you have to remember that Remy was doing her best to speak like someone born in Middle-Earth. Perhaps she wasn't doing a brilliant job of it, but it could've been worse.

"Now, I'm Remy. Most people would say that I'm one of the two group leaders. I'm twenty-two at the moment, which means I was nineteen when the apocalypse started. My weapon of choice: My precious home-made spear."

Her reddish hair caught the light and glinted slightly golden, while her green eyes seemed to have changed from earlier and now sparkled with joy. She patted the metal spike bound to her back and grinned.

"This thing has slain plenty of zombies in its time. Next up, we have Caine."

Said boy stepped forward. He was obviously just as undernourished as the rest of the group, with dark eyes and charcoal coloured hair that hung about his face like a curtain. He ran his hand through it as he bowed to Elrond and turned to smirk at the waiting crowd behind him.

"Like Rem said, I'm Caine. I'm the second leader, but that just means that most of the little kids look up to me. Back home, I used to scout for food with a few others every day, I'm twenty-one, so I'm the second-oldest. Rem over there is the oldest, but she's about as mature as-"

"Shut it Caine!" Remy laughed, and Caine just rolled his eyes.

"Like I was saying, I'm a hunter. My weapon is a bow, but I'm good with a gun too- we'll explain that weapon to you guys later. Next up is Justin, our resident nerd- uh... smart guy."

A tall, incredibly skinny boy with blonde hair and glasses took a bow.

"I'm Justin. For the past three years I've been researching and testing cures for the disease- to no avail, sadly. But I have discovered a couple of things about the zombies which are pretty interesting, but we can discuss that another time.

"I'm only sixteen, and I prefer not to use a weapon, though when I have to I'm alright with a spear. Who wants to go next?"

There was a short scuffle between teens but finally a broad, well-muscled guy jostled his way to the front.

"Brad's the name. Eighteen years old and I train the little kids to fight. But I'm an all-rounder- I learn pretty fast. I work with Caine to find food, I guess that's pretty cool. I use my fists when I have to and a short sword every other time- scavenged it in an antique store."

Another guy took his turn.

"Xander. I help out the group by building stuff- I'm good with my hands. I make weapons, shelters, mechanical devices for opening and closing doors- I'm a pretty good asset to the team, if I may say so myself. I hunt with Caine too. By the way, we call ourselves The Army. Unoriginal, I know, but it's what we are so it works. Moving on, I'm seventeen and use dual knives to fight. NEXT!"

"Samuel, thirteen, all-rounder. Any weapon you hand me, I'll use. Don't care if I'm using it wrong, I'll kill stuff with it anyway and that's what matters. Hunter."

"You already know me, I'm Megan. I'm twenty-one too but I'm still younger than Caine. I'm also the transporter of the group. The little kids like me, and they listen to me adore than they do anyone else. I don't like fighting, but I'm good with a gun. I think that's all!"

Remy stepped up again, a small smile on her face.

"There are only the little ones left now, so I'll go ahead and intro them for you. Jasmine over here is nine, she's our little chef, and a damn good one at that.

"Clem is six and she's pretty smart for a little kid. She's a good shot with a gun too.

"Lastly, we have Michael. He's silent, hasn't said a word since we found him. He's a bloody genius though, he always finds a way to tell us all the answers."

"Sit. Eat." Lord Elrond said. "Afterwards, someone will show you each to your rooms to rest. We will speak more about this in the morning."

Little did the observing crowd know that Remy would be attending a secret Council the next day.

And they definitely didn't know that she planned to volunteer her services and her gun to help Frodo on his quest- though it wouldn't work out quite the way she had hoped...


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey guys! Just wanted to say that I don't own Lord of the Rings or Caresse sur L'Ocean. On with the story!**

* * *

Damn, Elven food _sucked!_

Maybe it was just because she was a woman, but all Remy got to eat was freakin' rabbit food!

Luckily though, Caine got a ton of meat and Remy was happy to steal food from him.

It was nice not to have to worry about being caught taking someone else's food, not to have to worry about being punished for simple pranks... But then again, the guys who had enforced that were dead. Cowards, all of them.

They didn't matter anymore.

Remy sighed, leaning over Caine to wipe some grease from the corner of Clem's mouth.

The small girl smiled up at her and laughed.

"You can stop worrying about me, Rems. We're okay now!"

Remy couldn't hide the tiny smile that creeped onto her features, nor could she suppress the happiness that welled up inside her.

"I know, Clemmy. Just making sure, ya know. It's not easy looking after you lot all the time, and I've gotten used to it!"

Clem just turned back to her meal, eating with a vigour Remy hadn't seen in anyone for months. Maybe even a year.

Brad was sitting next to her on the long wooden bench that housed their group, Megan on his other side with Xander next to her.

The little kids were all in a line next to Caine, and Justin and Samuel sat on their other side, attempting to make them eat slower.

Of course, it wasn't working.

Michael coughed, choking slightly on a piece of meat and Justin clapped him on the back.

"Slow down kiddo! I know we've been living off scraps for a while, but this foods not gonna magically disappear, never to return! You can eat your fill, just slowly, okay?"

Michael nodded.

"In fairness to the kid, Genius Boy, we have only had roast dog for meat over the past couple of months, and even that ran out a while back." Brad said, contributing to the conversation.

The elves who were listening into the conversation wrinkled their noses in disgust.

Suddenly, Caine had an idea. Maybe it was childish, but still... It would be hilarious!

"Hey, Lord Elrond! Listen up!" He called,standing, and the hall went quiet.

Nobody ever spoke to Lord Elrond like that! Ever!

Surprisingly, Elrond just nodded for him to continue.

"So, I was thinkin' that you guys don't know much about our culture, right? So, maybe we could educate you!"

There was no sound, except for a steady thumping.

Caine turned to find the source of the noise.

Remy was banging her head against the table slowly in complete shame.

"Rem? Something wrong?" He asked, sweet as sugar.

"Yes." Came Remy's muffled voice. "Please Caine, don't do anything stupid!"

"I don't know what you mean!" He exclaimed, putting a hand to his chest in a gesture of mock hurt.

"Anyway, I think it would be fun to teach you people about life in our world! Any requests?"

Silence.

Crickets chirped.

Caine imagined a tumbleweed drifting slowly across the floor in front of him and snickered to himself, looking as mad as a hatter.

But then, two small hobbits jumped up onto their seats and grinned at Caine.

"Meriadoc Brandybuck here." "And Peregrin Took!" They introduced grandly. "What's the food like in your world?" They said in synch.

Remy started to laugh from her spot on the bench, joined by Justin.

Clem giggled, and Jasmine announced "Anything cooked by me is amazing!" which sent The Army into fits of laughter, and got a few smiles from the onlookers.

The hobbits looked impatient.

"Uh, okay. First, can I call you guys Merry and Pippin? Actually, you know what, I'm going to. So there. Food's not so different- well, not where I'm from. But then again I don't know much about Middle-Earth food. We have exactly the same raw materials for food, I'm sure, but we do different things with them than you guys. Oh, and most people don't have Second Breakfast. Or Elevenses. Or Afternoon Tea."

Merry and Pippin almost fell over in shock.

"You forgot something, Caine! Candy! Cola! Soda! Crisps, sweets, potato chips, gum..."

"And sushi!"

"Miso soup!"

"Pizza!"

"Cheeseburgers!"

Poor Merry and Pippin were looking confused and completely out of their depth!

"Bloody hell, I'd kill for a McDonalds right about now!" Samuel groaned, and Remy looked at him in disgust.

"You've just eaten you piece of-"

"Oi! Quiet! Order in the courtroom!" Caine yelled and everyone quietened down.

"Yeah, food's different. We can talk about our favourite foods some other time, yeah? I wanna move on, that's a boring topic!"

Merry and Pippin sat down, only to jump up a moment later.

From their angry yelps, I discovered that Frodo had put forks on their chairs and they had sat on them... Silly hobbitses!

The night passed in a blur.

Multiple times, The Army were been asked if they wanted to go and rest but they were having none of it.

They talked about clothing, educated the people of Rivendell on the topic of guns, and spoke about the music industry.

The latter was a topic Caine, Brad, Samuel and Remy relished talking about, because they got to make the assorted people uncomfortable by singing increasingly rude snatches of songs to 'prove their points'.

It started with Caine deciding to rant about how he hates pop music because "pop music is only about sex, drugs and money'.

That didn't stop him from singing a mixed bag of Miley Cyrus, Macklemore and Robin Thicke at the top of his lungs- it didn't stop Remy from joining in either.

At some point, Elrond had decided that it was no use to try and rein them in, so he just sat there and watched helplessly as they poisoned the minds of his people with filthy-minded jokes.

Eventually, the night had to come to an end, and as the little kids' heads began to droop towards the tables they all decided that it was time for sleep.

Something the movies had never shown and the books had never mentioned was a detailed look at the rooms in the House of Elrond.

The entire group was staying there, along with the important people who had been invited to the Council.

The rooms were pretty big and extremely airy, with a curtain that could be pulled across to hide you from the outside world while you were changing or sleeping or whatever. The beds were big and extremely comfortable, and the wardrobe that was in the corner of each room was stacked with clothes for males or females.

Remy decided that she would wear guys clothes, no way in hell was she wearing a dress.

She said goodnight to most of the others, except for Clem.

She had a special goodnight for her.

Clem had been wandering on her own when The Army found her.

She didn't know what was going on, all she knew was that 'Mommy and Daddy tried to hurt her', so she ran.

She was too young to know about zombies, being only three at the beginning of the apocalypse. She said that some others had looked after her for a while, but refused to say anything more.

With a small sigh, Remy tapped on the door of Clem's room.

The little girl called for her to come in and Remy did so, leaving the door open behind her. She would be very quick. The girl had already pulled the big curtain and was tucked into the covers.

Obviously Caine had already said his goodnights. Remy put a smile on her face and sat on the edge of the bed.

The girl looked lost in the mound of covers, her head just peeking out from above the soft, warm blankets.

"Do you want a story or a song tonight, Clemmy?" asked Remy, stroking the little girl's hair.

Clem looked up at Remy sleepily and murmured "Song".

In a soft voice, Remy began to sing to the girl:

_"__Caresse sur l'ocean  
Porte l'oiseau si leger  
Revenant des terres enneigees  
Air ephemere de l'hiver  
Au loin ton echo s'eloigne  
Chateaux en Espagne  
Vire au vent tournoie deploie tes ailes  
Dans l'aube grise du levant  
Trouve un chemin vers l'arc-en-ciel  
Se decouvrira le printemps_

_Caresse sur l'ocean  
Pose l'oiseau si leger  
Sur la pierre d'une ile immergee  
Air ephemere de l'hiver  
Enfin ton souffle s'eloigne  
Loin dans les montagnes  
Vire au vent tournoie deploie tes ailes  
Dans l'aube grise du levant  
Trouve un chemin vers l'arc-en-ciel  
Se decouvrira le printemps  
Calme sur l'ocean_

By the time she finished, Clem was deeply asleep.

Remy leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her forehead, whispering a soft good-night.

Remy stood, turning towards the door.

To her surprise, there was someone waiting for her.

"I didn't know you could sing Lady Remy." Boromir said, quietly so as not to wake the girl.

Remy just blushed.

"I am Captain Boromir, of Gondor. I- I apologise for my intrusion, I simply-"

"Don't worry about it. It's perfectly fine." She smiled, bidding him goodnight before walking away to her room and heading inside, leaving the slightly stunned Captain behind her.


End file.
